The Making Of Poets In New Mexico

By Ina Hunt


Poetry has been taken with a lot of seriousness despite lacking a poetic king for a long time in this state. There have been many efforts in nurturing poets in New Mexico. Most notably are efforts by an organization of high schools in forming the poetry out loud group, and the New Mexico Poetry Society. The former is a recitation competition for high school students while the later is a non-profit making organization charged with the responsibility of nurturing poetry.

The poetry society of this region was formed by Alice Briley in the late 60s and has done a good job ever since. This institution is a strong supporter of cultural welfare. It strongly stands by this value. It engages in educational and literary activities, and nothing else out of this bracket. Due to its commitment to being no-partisan, it does not support any religious, political or social view points. Its members are, therefore, banned from participating in political, social and religious campaigns on behalf of the group.

This society has given birth to several poets. These poets include; Joe Shaffer, Jim Applegate, Ann Applegarth, Lynn Baldwin and Jeanette Oestermeyer, among several other established poets. This association has been operational since it was founded in the 60s. In recent days, there has been established a formidable coordination between this group and the Eastern University of this state. The collaboration has fostered the organization of student contests. These contests receive many participants and fans.

The society formed what they called the RGV chapter that has continuously motivated budding poets. It formed collaboration with the University of New Mexico. This collaboration was in form of lectures and guidance in writing poetry. The university in turn admitted students with the purpose of imparting in them the skills gained from the RGV poets. This collaboration later resulted in needy students being offered sponsored scholarships at the larger poetic society.

Poetry loud association organizes competitions for students. The students compete in reciting poems. This is followed by organized national and state prizes. The competitions are held in all the states and not this one alone. Major prizes include $ 200 as personal prizes for the winners, $ 500 renovating their libraries, $100 number twos and $200 renovating their school libraries. All requirements during the entire trip are catered for. National contests have greater prizes for participants. Several good writers have come out of such competitions.

Among the most influential poets are Dana Levin, Pata Mora and D. H Lawrence who migrated from Britain. Their poems were well received by their readers in this state and the other parts of the world. These are among the first professional poets in this state.

These writers wrote on different themes in different periods of time. They addressed problems brought by industrialization, political revolutions, love and modernization among many other themes as determined by occurrences at the time. They received recognition just like their colleagues in other states.

Their writing styles also varied depending on the literary movements at every point in times. They used symbolism, realism, romanticism and naturalism in their works depending on the movement that was popular at the time. These different literary epochs came with their different styles.




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